Healing an Injury Using Topical and Internal Herbs: A Personal Success Story
(Originally posted as a newsletter 11/2/21. If you are not signed up for my newsletters,signup here!
HEALING AN INJURY USING TOPICAL AND INTERNAL HERBS
A Personal Success Story of Healing Myself!
Hello Friends!
I was walking my friend to her car in my driveway. Every month or two I receive a massage from her, and that day she had stayed for a lovely outdoor dinner on my patio at the edge of the forest. We had multigrain pizza with veggies! Yum!
It was a late summer evening, around dusk, and I was walking barefoot as usual, happy as could be, feeling wonderful, when a sharply pointed stone dug deep into the ball of my left foot, almost where it meets the bottom of my second and third toes.
Did you know there are approximately 7,000 nerves in each foot?
I think I injured 6,999 of them!
All kidding aside, I was in so much pain I couldn’t sit, stand or lie without whimpering. Sleep did not come easily that night, and the next day I cancelled all my consultation appointments, even though they were online, so as to tend to my own healing. I was swollen, bruised and still in pain, and though I was not walking much, when I did, I was using a cane. I devoted the next days to self-care, to herbal bruise healing inside and out.
On the Saturday which followed, five days later, I was able to keep my word and take my apprentices on a long steep hike up this ancient mountain to swim in the pristine lake nestled in the forest at the top. I didn’t want to disappoint them, but I absolutely would have if I thought I would hurt myself by going. I used my cross-country ski poles to make it gentler and safer for myself (challenging my “pride”) and have suffered no repercussions. Thank you plant medicine!!!!!! The scheduled field trip was highly motivational to me. Apparently it gave me the “excuse” I needed to tend to myself with ongoing, loving care.
The plants that helped my body heal are common,
abundant weeds where I live and in many places!
Plantain – Pain relief, anti-inflammatory
Grape Leaf – Black and blue bruises
Witch hazel – anti-inflammatory
Comfrey – tissue healing, anti-inflammatory
Yarrow- called “woundwort”
St J’s wort- nerve damage, pain relief
Coltsfoot -cooling, soothing
I used herbal baths, foot baths, poultices, oils and internal infusions and tinctures.
I kept herbs on my foot in one form or another 24/7,
slowing down the intensity of the treatments as I healed.
The first night I got into a bath made with strong yarrow infusion, as it’s so anti-inflammatory and pain -relieving. I drank home-made yarrow, witch hazel and St. J’s wort internally in boiled water, making a tea with those tinctures. I put plantain and yarrow oils on my foot, very gingerly, then wrapped it in a large fresh plantain leaf, as shown, then put a sock on to hold everything in place while I laid in bed, still kept awake by the pain as my foot was healing.
By the next day, the pain was manageable and I continued to apply the oils and poultices until I was better. And I started taking herbal foot baths.
Gradually, I only wrapped the toes that still hurt.
Then I went down to just oils and ointments.
In general I’ve found that, when it’s possible, immediacy and constancy are the best ways to achieve long-term healing from injuries and help minimize or eliminate future repercussions.
Having worked with herbs and people for decades now I feel confident in saying this injury could’ve easily had a person in pain, inflamed and limping for a month! I am genuinely amazed and grateful for how well herbs work to help us heal ourselves.
It’s so empowering and practical to know how to use herbs for first aid, and to have a few herbs on hand, ready and available for you and your family when you need them.
I’m offering the following two-week course so you can have this information at your fingertips and ask questions, too.
Herbal First Aid Medicine - Inside and Out
sponsored by Transcending Roots Apothecary
November 11 & 18th, 7 - 9 PM ET
Register HERE
Come join us in real time, or by recording afterward. First aid information is invaluable; we inevitably run into bumps and bruises, scrapes and contusions, sprains and such whether we are at home or on the road. I hope you can join me.
Green Blessings and love,
Robin Rose
~*~
Upcoming Events
Herbs for Your Nerves
Radical Self-care With Herbal Medicine
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